Charlie Strong got his first head coaching job three seasons ago at Louisville, and he will lead the Cardinals in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Jan. 2 in New Orleans.Getty Images

Louisville is one of the teams departing the conference in 2014, shifting to the ACC after next season. On New Year's Day, the eve of Louisville's Allstate Sugar Bowl matchup against Florida, Cardinals Coach Charlie Strong said he has faith the Big East isn't in danger of folding.

"I think the Big East is going to be fine," Strong said. "I think there's teams out there that want to become a member of the Big East. So I think that will happen for them."

Boise State would have been a football-only member of the Big East in 2013, part of the conference's Western division.

"I don't know where it went wrong," Strong said of the dramatic turnover in the Big East. "But I just think there's still a lot of teams out there that are not within a conference, and I think maybe that's how they can fall in and get those teams to become part of the conference.

"It's always tough because you look at everyone's trying to build and everyone's trying to position themselves to get better teams for the other conferences."

Strong said his top priority is not next season's schedule, which now won't include Boise State. His primary goal now is to win the Sugar Bowl, and he'll leave the rest to Athletic Director Tom Jurich.

"Let's get through this game, then I'm going to start worrying about Boise," Strong said. "Not so much Boise, but worrying about my own team."